One of the finest things done in those first fatal days at Anzac must be put to the credit of Murphy's mules. Murphy's ambulance was looked for as anxiously as Gunga Din. It was "Murphy! Murphy! Murphy! an' we'll thank you for your mules!" As a matter of fact "Murphy" was a Scotsman, though he hailed from South Shields, County Durham. His real name was, I believe, John Simpson Kirkpatrick; some say it was Latimer, and others that it was Simpson; and he was a stretcher-bearer. He used to hurry up with water to the firing-line, and carry back the wounded. It was a terribly heavy pull up and down Shrapnel Gully, from the cove to the top of Braund's Hill, so Murphy "pinched" a couple of mules, and did yeoman service. He used to leave the mules just under the brow of the hill and dash forward himself to the firing-line to save the wounded. "Murphy's" voice near them sounded like a voice from heaven. Time after time he climbed the hill and did his noble work. Day after day he smiled and carried on. The mules were missed, and they found out who stole them. But they also found out what splendid work "Murphy" was doing; so the officers connived at the theft. They became accessories after the fact. [Illustration: Murphy's Mules at Anzac. "Murphy" on the left, his mate on the right, and little "Shrapnel" in the background.] There came a day when "Murphy's mules" came not. Stretcher-bearers were working overtime, and the wounded cried "For God's sake, send 'Murphy's mules'!" Later on they found the mules grazing contentedly in Shrapnel Valley. Then they found poor "Murphy".... He had done his last journey to the top of the hill. "Where's Murphy?" demanded one of the 1st Battalion. "Murphy's at heaven's gate," answered the sergeant, "helping the soldiers through." CHAPTER X TO DRIVE BACK THE TURK THE TWELFTH OF JULY--AN AFFAIR OF CONSEQUENCE--A TURKISH DRIVE--ACCURATE ENEMY FIRE--"COME AND SURRENDER"--RAPID ENEMY MOVEMENT--OUR PURPOSE ACHIEVED--A WONDERFUL PROCLAMATION, MADE IN GERMANY We had scores of little affairs of outposts, and our patrols enjoyed some fine skirmishes and night encounters. None of them, however, quite deserved mention in the official chronicle. But the affair of _July 12_--of "glorious and immortal memory"--was more important. It began and coincided with an advance down south at Helles. The plan of operations there was to seize the right and right-centre sections of the foremost system of Turkish trenches, from the spot where the Kereves Dere meets the sea to the main Seddel-Bahr--Krithia Road, a front of about 2,500 yards. The object was to complete the driving back of the Turks to their second system.